Cal

Jon Wilner, star college writer for BANG, is starting his own podcast soon, so this was a perfect time to bring him back onto this show to reminisce about his key role at the inception of “The TK Show.”

Yes, Wilner was our guest on my first test show in February 2015, one week before we officially launched with Jim Harbaugh and Tom Tolbert interviews.

Oh, today I also talked college football with Jon–what to expect from new Cal quarterback Davis Webb, new Stanford QB Ryan Burns, why Keller Chryst hasn’t won that job, and who Jon sees winning the Pac-12 and maybe getting a CFP final four bid.

This is Part 2 of the Bowl Picks extravaganza, including games from Dec. 25 through Dec. 31.

We’ll do Part 3 next week, which will include the two semifinal games and the Jan. 1-2 bowls.

Then the final edition will be picking the playoff championship game.

—KAWAKAMI (last edition 2-1, overall 23-21-1)/

* AIR FORCE +7, over Cal in the Armed Forces Bowl on Monday: I might regret this one and honestly I’m already sort of regretting it.

Cal certainly has the firepower to race right through the D of my favorite military academy–in possibly Jared Goff’s final collegiate game, with all those receivers, with Sonny Dykes celebrating that new (modest) contract extension.

* STANFORD -11, over Cal: That’s a large number, and it could be foolish to toss the 11 points to this decent Cal team.

However, I’m going with Stanford because on a neutral field the Cardinal is probably 12 to 14 points better than Cal and this game is at Stanford Stadium–also, most importantly, with these two teams, this year, I think it’s not terrible to bank on that.

Moving this up a day because I moved the NFL picks up for the 49ers-Seattle game today, and by happy circumstance that means I can pick the Cal-UCLA game tonight right on this item.

Right to the picks…
—KAWAKAMI (last week 1-2, overall 12-8-1)/

* CAL +3.5 over UCLA tonight: This one opened with UCLA as a 7.5-point home favorites, which seemed really high at the time and was quickly bet down to the current FG+. I still think it’s too high, even though this is at the Rose Bowl…

With Cal coming off a bye weekend, which gives the Bears all that time to stew over the near-miss loss against Utah… with Jared Goff certainly due to have a better game than he did in Salt Lake City, and with UCLA in a bit of a typical UCLA mid-season sag…

I like Cal to win this game outright. I just don’t know how UCLA’s defense holds Cal below 30 and I think Cal can keep UCLA under 30, so there’s the practical math.

Two pretty large road games for Stanford and Cal on Saturday, in totally different Vegas situations…

—-KAWAKAMI (last week 2-1, overall 4-2)/

* TEXAS +6.5, over Cal: I guess I can see the logic behind putting the sagging Longhorns as an enormous home underdog against a Cal team with a lot of offensive talent, but still the number feels like it’s 3 or 4 points too large.